Malama I Ke Ola Health Center

Dana Alonzo-Howeth

Executive Director

B.J. Ott

Chief Financial Officer

Jay Faris

Medical Director

Melissa Hashimoto-Binkie

Chief Operating Officer

Gina Edgar

Quality Assurance Coordinator

Overview

Founded in 1993 to meet the community demand for health services for the homeless, poor and underserved, Malama I Ke Ola Health Center (MIKOHC) recently completed renovations on its new main facility and clinic at the old Ooka Supermarket. This modern, ‘green’ facility provides significantly more space for patient care and allows providers to deliver the full range of health care services needed by Maui’s rapidly growing community. Maui is an island with a land base of 727 square miles and a total population nearing 120,000. There is no public transportation system to link the many sparsely populated rural communities of the island to resources in central Maui.

Services

Malama I Ke Ola Health Center provides a comprehensive range of health services for all life cycles: perinatal services, family planning, pediatric, general and family practice medicine, and internal medicine. Urgent care is provided, as is preventive medicine, patient education, and nutritional services. Behavioral health services include counseling and treatment for chemical dependency and mental health issues, including crisis and short-term counseling, group therapy and case management. Interpreter services are available in Tagalog, Ilocano, and Spanish. WIC (Women Infant and Children Supplemental Food Program) is offered onsite. MIKOHC also provides Tobacco Cessation Services. MIKOHC participates in the County Ice Program and the Diabetes Collaborative and has agreements with Hui No Ke Ola Pono (Maui’s Native Hawaiian Health Care System), Aloha House, Salvation Army, and the Maui Family Recovery Center.

Special Populations/Health Issues

Undocumented Hispanic laborers; migrants from the Freely Associated States; generally transient and uninsured population; large HIV caseload. Maui county has the highest substance abuse rate in Hawai‘i, and the highest tuberculosis rate in the nation. It also has a high incidence of hepatitis B, diabetes, hypertension, gout, asthma, bronchitis/emphysema, and family violence. MIKOHC sees a large number of patients with chronic disease such as diabetes and hypertension, substance abuse and its resultant health problems, high-risk pregnancies, inadequately immunized children and others with acute and episodic conditions and infections. Thirty-five percent of MIKOHC’s patients suffer social or behavioral problems that require professional intervention.

Patients with an income less than 200% of Federal Poverty Level (FPL): 93%

Homeless Patients: 930

Staffing

MIKOHC has on its professional staff physicians in: family practice, internal medicine, pediatrics and obstetrics/gynecology; nurse practitioners, nurses and medical assistants, social workers, outreach workers, and case managers.